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Monday night’s baseball contest between Sheehan and Lyman Hall at Pat Wall Field had everything. There was the big crowd, players wearing pink in support of Cancer Awareness Night and two teams battling for postseason berths.

What the game also had was a primetime performance.

Sheehan pitcher Jim Davitt put on a show and dazzled the crowd to the tune of 14 strikeouts, leading the Titans to a 6-1 victory over cross-town rival Lyman Hall.

“It is probably the best game he has pitched all year,” Sheehan coach Matt Altieri said. “He had all three pitches working. I thought his slider was very effective and his velocity was way up there.

“I thought he had real good command of the strike zone. We also played good defense behind him. Once we got in front, it was good for him to be able to pitch with that type of lead.”

With the victory, Sheehan qualified for the state tournament, improving to 8-7 overall and 4-3 in the Southern Connecticut Conference Housatonic Division.

Lyman Hall’s road to the postseason got tougher as the Trojans fell to 5-8 overall and 1-4 in the division.

“That has been a goal since the beginning,” Altieri said of qualifying for the state tournament. “To us, it was expected. Now, we are on to our next goal and that is to see if we can make some hay in the Housy.

“More importantly, we want to get a home game and we want to qualify for the SCC tournament. We are still in the mix with that.”

Davitt allowed only five hits and one run on a bad-hop single in the sixth inning. Other than that, it was all Davitt as he continually baffled the Trojans with his curveball.

“Davitt just dazzled us,” Lyman Hall coach Charles Burghardt said. “We could not hit him. He struck out 14 batters. We were not very strong at the plate. It was a tough game for us.

“We did not do much. They only had to make seven plays in the field. We had the five hits, but we never put them together.”

Burghardt’s team suffered another loss, losing starting pitcher Ryan Formanski to an arm injury in the third inning. Formanski’s injury makes the Trojans’ road to the postseason more difficult as their schedule this week is unforgiving.

“We have Amity, Cheshire and Shelton,” Burghardt said. “We have to get something. We have to upset a couple of teams and we have to beat the teams we beat in the first half of the year.”

The Titans scored early and put the Trojans in chase mode from the start.

Formanski started the game by walking Mike Kakalow.

The inning progressed with Rob Sprafke reaching on a single and Formanski hitting Derek Allen to load the bases. With two outs, senior captain Andrew Mazzone came up big.

Mazzone’s single to center scored Kakalow and Sprafke for a 2-0 lead. The two runs gave Davitt room to work with early before Sheehan gave its pitcher some insurance with four more runs two innings later.

“Andy was able to get a big hit there,” Altieri said.

Brian Murphy and Sprafke walked to start third the inning and Formanski left the game with an arm injury. Burghardt brought in Chris Massimino, who was not greeted nicely.

“He was not sharp,” Burghardt said of Formanski. “It was his elbow.”

Massimino walked Allen to load the bases and gave up a single to junior Kevin Duffy, scoring Murphy and Sprafke for a 4-0 lead. When Davitt drove in the final run of the inning with a single, Sheehan had more than enough with the way Davitt was pitching.

“I felt comfortable once we had that lead,” Altieri said. “But, I was disappointed we were not able to keep adding on runs throughout the game.”

Davitt held the Trojans scoreless through five innings, but could not get the shutout. The Trojans broke through in the sixth inning when Massimino singled, stole second and scored on Matt Moran’s single over first.

“It was a good game,” Burghardt said. “We just did not hit Davitt. They got the big hit when they needed it. Mazzone got the hit in the first inning to drive in two runs and that proved to be a big hit there. We scored on a bad-hop single but we did not do enough.”

Altieri was impressed with something other than his team as well. He liked the way the two teams battled on the field and respect each other off of it in supporting Cancer Awareness.

“One of the things with these games is the kids have always been good,” Altieri said. “Charlie (Burghardt) and I are good friends. These kids have grown up together. They have played on the same youth teams together.

“One of the things I am most impressed with is how competitive they are on the field but there has never been any trouble. That is always good. It is a good rivalry and we were also playing for something bigger than a game.”